TORONTO — Gabriel Diallo, the last Canadian man standing in the men’s draw at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers, was eliminated on Friday night.
The 23-year-old from Montreal dropped a 6-4, 6-2 decision to world No. 4, American Taylor Fritz in front of a mostly full centre court crowd at Sobeys Stadium in Toronto.
Diallo, who’s risen up world rankings nearly 50 spots this calendar year to No. 36, was the 27th seed here and the only Canadian man to win his opener on home courts to advance to the third round.
Friday night was a rematch of the five-set heartbreaker Diallo lost to Fritz in Round 2 at Wimbledon earlier this month, the Canadian’s first-ever match against a top-5 player, which he called “arguably” the best tennis he’d ever played. Friday was his second-ever match against a top-5 player, and Diallo didn’t have quite the stuff he displayed earlier this month on the grass courts at Wimbledon to push Fritz to five sets.
It was a shaky start for Diallo, who double-faulted twice and didn’t win a single point on his opening service game, sending one forehand well long and another well wide, handing Fritz an early break. That was the difference in the first set.
After that opening game, Diallo got his serve cooking. He held his third service game with back-to-back aces — hitting upwards of 230 k.m.h. — and on the final point, he drilled a crosscourt forehand winner and yelled: “Come on!”
He then got his serve-and-volley game going and started the second set on serve, this time denying Fritz a single point.
Diallo again gave up an early break in the second set, and double-faulted twice again in a later game, and Fritz made good on another break point.
